Wings of Honor: Tales of Pyrrhia

Chapter 25: Know Thy Enemy

"Lieutenant, are you sure about this?"
I press-checked my M1911, sliding it back into its holster, unable to hide anything heavier. "I have one hour to figure out what Goldman is doing. Four hours there, four hours back before sunrise."
"And why can't I have any ammo?"
I stopped for a moment.
"Because I know you'll try and eliminate Goldman at your first opportunity, Wessly."
I tucked all my gear under my jacket. Wessly only hung his head and nodded.
"You... provide overwatch. If anything happens and you're compromised, give me two clicks on the radio. Emergency rondevu is at Jade Mountain. If all goes well, I'll give you two clicks and we'll rondevu at the river. Where-" "Where we first met them. Roger."
I held for a moment, then smiled. "Good."
I patted Wessly on his back.
"Please don't get me or yourself killed Wessly."
"I'll do my best sir." He smiled. I nodded, patting him off. I watched him move off to take a spotting position.
I looked over back. I knew the camp was only about 60 yards from us. I placed my radio inside one of the internal pockets. It dug into my left hip, but I could click the call button and send out a signal while I was cloaked. In no time, I already knew Wessly had climbed a tree and was already scanning with his rifle. He had a lower-powered scope, but the camp wasn't too far away either.
Two clicks. <In position.>
I waited another moment for any further word.
One two, three four, five six. <Six persons in the camp.>
Well, there you go. I don't know how Goldman found five others, but I wasn't about to become his sixth.
I clicked twice, signaling I was going in.
I received two clicks back. <Best of luck.>
Make me invisible.
The world seemed to go darker, as if my body helped to reflect light to help me see. But I still made out my landmarks.
I stepped carefully, padding my steps. Watching the ground carefully for leaves and sticks that could betray my presence. Sure enough, I came across the first guard. He was oblivious and held his rifle like he was a raw recruit. He did keep a good watch though. I simply went around him when he patrolled away.
Now I was inside. Nothing really changed, the camp was mostly the same spare our two tents. There were more tents pitched (different from our standard pup tents), and a structure. An adobe structure, like a few around in Gonzales, but mostly in North Africa. But why? Why would you need an Adobe house here? It was small, barely enough to provide shelter. The petruding oven, in comparison, was almost as large as the building itself. You would bake immediately if you lit it up.
I ducked into the first tent. Papers. Tons of papers, all filed away messily into field cabinets. Goldman must've made them, there was no way he scavenged these from somewhere. There must've been twenty of them, too many to check in detail. I skimmed over them, hunting for anything that caught my eye. I found a few maps. One of the Invinci-Indestructible City, another of its operational area. There was nothing on Jade Mountain thankfully.
There was nothing else I could grab, so I called it there. I nearly walked out into a patrolling guard. The absolute worst-case scenario for a saboteur. Thankfully, he wasn't as alert as anyone thought. He completely missed me, marching off to the other end of camp. Carefully this time, I inched my way out. Stalking carefully into the next tent.
This was it. This was the gold mine. I was met with a huge, jet-black egg. A dragon egg. The same color as Starflight. Black as night. I took in a shaky breath. This was what was stolen from the jungle hatchery, the crime I took the blame for. Goldman stole away a life. A sweet, innocent, life. What did this guy have to do with anything? Even as a soldier, my job was to avoid unnecessarily involving civilians. But I knew that some soldiers went after anything they perceived as the enemy. Not just enemy combatants, the civilians that held them, even if it was against their will.
This is what Goldman did.
I felt a stirring rage grow in me. I could not let him get away with this. I didn't dare touch the egg. I wished so badly I could whisk it away to somewhere safer. Somewhere Goldman could not touch. But he wanted this egg for a reason. My job here was to find out why. I tore myself away from that tent. I wanted to stay, but I couldn't. Not if I wanted to save this little guy. Not if I wanted to save others.
I knew what was in the last tent before I even stepped foot inside. A resounding coldness emanated from it. This was incredibly suspicious. Something nagged at the back of my mind that this was a trap. I decided to step back and away, only to walk straight into Goldman standing behind me.
I caught myself before we touched. Mr. Sweeps cleared my mind, I held my breath. There was no way he could find me. Barely navigating away as he went into his tent. I caught a glimpse of whatever he had in there. A blue shard that threw off a similar glow.
A dreamvisitor? Oh no.
Goldman spun around. "He's here. Marvin's here. Scan the entire camp! DO NOT let him get away!"
Nope.
I bolted from the camp. Clicking my radio twice. I raced down the forest, not caring about the noise I made behind me. I ran as fast as I could to the river, finding Wessly there.
"Marvin." He said in a hushed voice. "What happene-"
"Not-now. Spotted. Move."
He took off with me. We ran all the way back to Jade Mountain.